Abigail: Chapter 64

It was a week later, when I was sitting at my kitchen table enjoying a mid-morning coffee, that I heard a car pull to a stop outside my house. I wasn’t expecting visitors. The girls had gone to their dad’s house for the day. My mother had taken herself off on a cruise of Scandinavia. Even the dog was otherwise engaged, snoring loudly in the middle of my bed. I looked out of the window and saw Rob walking up my path carrying the largest bunch of flowers I’d seen in all my life. I scrambled to pull a dressing gown on over my PJs and then opened the front door.

“What are you doing here?”

“Nice to see you too!” He sounded huffy. “Is that really any way to speak to your dinner date?” He handed me the flowers. “Here, stick these in some water before they start to droop.”

“Dinner date? Since when?”

“We had a deal. Don’t you remember?”

I thought about it for a moment and then smiled. “Ah yes, now you mention it, I do seem to remember something about you taking me for dinner when I prove that Toby didn’t just run away. Thank you very much.”

I took the flowers, ran a sink of water, and put them in it. They’d have to wait for Louise to come home to go in a vase. She was much better at arranging them than me.

“Only thing is, I’m not dressed.” I opened my dressing gown and flashed my Snoopy PJs at him.

“You’d better get a move on then Cinderella. I’ll make myself a cuppa while I wait.”

I didn’t need telling twice. I ran up the stairs and jumped in the shower. Half an hour later I came back downstairs wearing my favourite glittery sweater dress and long black boots. Rob gave an appreciate whistle.

“You scrub up nicely, fair play.” He offered me his arm and together we walked to the car.

It wasn’t until we were sharing dessert that he finally mentioned Abigail and Toby.

“Did you ever find out what the connection was between Toby and Ryan?”

After being pulled off me by Rob when he stormed the science lab with the police, Ryan had been arrested and was currently awaiting trial at Her Majesty’s pleasure. He’d been questioned by police as part of the investigation but, so far at least, was refusing to say anything. I’d been to see Toby and Abigail a few days ago and while Abigail was making coffee, had spoken to Toby about what Ryan had said that day.

“You’re not going to believe this but it was completely random. It started with Ryan trying to do Toby a favour but after Toby got drunk that night and started bragging about his wife and kids, that’s when Ryan started to see Toby as a meal ticket.”

“And the story about Toby beating him up because he ‘broke the code’?”

“Complete pack of lies. Toby put him up to it. Toby wanted to know what I had on him so he persuaded Ryan to lead me on a bit, steal my bag.  The ransom note was Toby’s idea too. When he found out the insurance wouldn’t pay out he wanted to come home, thought the ransom demand could pay off his debts. It all got out of hand when Ryan nicked my van. That’s when Toby started to get cold feet. By then it was too late for Ryan, his mind was made up, so when Toby told him he’d changed his mind, he turned on him.”

“I take it Abigail doesn’t know any of this?”

“After what she said to us in the car, I think she has her suspicions but no, he hasn’t told her the whole story, not yet at least.”

“Will you tell her?”

I shook my head. “It’s not my story to tell. I did my job, I found Toby Rogers. The rest is up to them.”

“I guess that means you really were right about everything all along.”

“Everything?”

“The perfect marriage with the perfect kids? I guess this proves there’s really no such thing.”

Ah that. “You know, I’ve been thinking about that.

“Go on?”

“I’ve come to the conclusion that perfect is massively overrated. We’re all just making it up as we go along, doing the best we can. I think this year I’m ready to embrace the mess.”

“I’ll drink to that!” said Rob, and then he stole the last bite of cheesecake.

“Oi pig!”

“Who are you calling pig?”

And so the evening continued, all talk of Abigail and Toby set aside for another day. All things considered, it was a very satisfying ending. I wouldn’t want to be Toby when Abigail and her father eventually learned the truth about his disappearance, he had an awful lot of explaining to do, who knew if they’d make it after that. As for me, I meant what I said to Rob. Life was messy but maybe it was about time I stopped running from it. With two teenage daughters, a crazy dog and friends like Rob, I didn’t know what the new year would bring, but I was certain it wouldn’t be boring.